The testimony of George S. De Mohrenschildt was taken at 10 a.m., on
April 22, 1964, at 200 Maryland Avenue N.E., Washington, D.C., by Mr.
Albert E. Jenner, Jr., assistant counsel of the President's Commission.
Dr. Alfred Goldberg, historian, was present.
Mr. JENNER. Will you rise and be sworn? Do you solemnly swear to tell
the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth in the deposition
you are about to give?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. I do.
Mr. JENNER. Mr. Reporter, this is Mr. George De Mohrenschildt.
Mr. De Mohrenschildt, you and Mrs. De Mohrenschildt have received
letters from Mr. Rankin, the general counsel of the Commission, have
you not?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. We received one.
Mr. JENNER. One joint letter?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. One joint letter.
Mr. JENNER. With which was enclosed copies of the Senate Joint
Resolution 137, which was the legislation authorizing the creation of
the Commission to investigate the assassination of President John
Fitzgerald Kennedy; the Executive Order No. 11130, President Lyndon
Johnson--which brought the Commission actually into existence and
appointed the Commissioners and fixed their powers and duties and
obligations. And, also, a copy of the rules and regulations adopted by
the Commission for the taking of testimony before the Commission, and
by deposition.
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. Are you a representative of the Commission?
Mr. JENNER. Yes.
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. A lawyer for the Commission?
Mr. JENNER. I will state it in a moment.
I am Albert E. Jenner, Jr., member of the legal staff of the
Commission, and have prepared to make inquiry of you with respect to
the subject matter with which the Commission is charged.
In general, as you have noted from the documents enclosed with Mr.
Rankin's letter, the Commission is charged with the investigation and
the assembling of facts respecting the assassination of President John
F. Kennedy on the 22d of November 1963, the events that followed that
assassination, and all matters before and after that are deemed by the
Commission relevant to its obligations.
In pursuing these lines of inquiry, which we have been doing now for
some months, we have examined before the Commission and by way of
deposition various people who, by pure happenstance in the course of
their lives, came into contact either with Lee Harvey Oswald or Marina
Oswald, or others who had some relation with them. And in the course of
our investigation, we have learned that you and Mrs. De Mohrenschildt
befriended the Oswalds at one time, and had some other contact with
them.
As you realize, there are rumors and speculations of various people
who do not know what the facts are--some of them know bits of the
facts--which require us in many instances to inquire into matters that
are largely personal. We are not doing so merely because we are curious.
I will confine myself to matters that we believe to be relevant. It may
not always be apparent to you, because we know a great deal more, of
course, than any one witness would know.
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. You know, this affair actually is hurting me
quite a lot, particularly right now in Haiti, because President
Duvalier--I have a contract with the Government.
Mr. JENNER. Yes; I want to inquire on that.
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. They got wind I am called by the Warren
committee. Nobody knows how it happened. And now he associates me,
being very scared of assassination, with a staff of international
assassins, and I am about to be expelled from the country. My contract
may be broken.
So I discussed that with our Ambassador there, Mr. Timmons, and he
said, of course, it sounds ridiculous, but he will try to do his best.
Supposedly, President Duvalier received a letter from Washington. Now,
this is unofficial--one of the ministers informed me of that--in which
this letter states that I was a very close friend of Oswald's, that I
am a Polish Communist and a member of an international band.
Mr. JENNER. I would say that you are misinformed on that.
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. Well, he did receive some kind of a letter.
Mr. JENNER. But nothing that would contain any such statements.
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. Well, I don't know from whom. Some kind of a
letter he received from someone.
Mr. JENNER. It may have been a crank letter.
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. What is that?
Mr. JENNER. It may have been a crank letter, but nothing official.
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. Yes; I am sure it is nothing official. I am sure
it could not have been anything official.
I hope Mr. Timmons will investigate it. Because, naturally, the
Minister of Finance of Haiti tells me that it is an official letter
and seems to indicate that it comes from the FBI. But I just doubt it,
personally. Probably a crank letter. I do not have an extraordinary
admiration for the FBI. But, frankly, I don't think they would do
anything like that, you know.